I have always felt that the government covered that incident up because the public was still reeling from the 9/11 horror and the airline industry lobbyists were in a panic.
Agencies can only cover up so much terrorism before the public gets wise and stops believing in their government. I wish we'd learn the truth about this and OKC--which I also believe was never fully explained...
Until 9/11 I little considered the power of the airline lobby in this country. It's immense. They got indemnities and bonanza after bonanza of corporate welfare.
There are those among us who still think the steel cutting charges detonated at OK City was done by a lone Timmy McViegh and fertilizer...
Nichols was not at the scene...
It got brushed off to quickly imho.
I do not believe the government should lie.
However, if this had been an act of terrorism, and if the government knew about it, then the cover-up certainly worked! The terrorists got ZERO benefit from it. Perhaps terrorists groups concluded that they get no bang for the buck by bringing down aircraft since they didn't get any publicity!
That being said, I highly doubt that this was terrorism. Due to the arguments above I think that one of the organizations would have stepped forward and claimed responsibility. These guys are into advertising. There are lots of unconventional and/or foreign media outlets which cannot be controlled by the U.S. government.
As I was typing the previous paragraph, it occurred to me that November 2001 was a really "iffy" time to be a terrorist. The U.S. had not reacted to 9/11, but it was clear that some heads were going to roll. Perhaps they didn't want to stick their heads up.
[To anyone who has read this far: No, I am not John Kerry just because I can hold a debate with myself! :]
You have that right...
Agree.